The parish church of San Fernando Rey (with an image of Santiago on horseback) is close to the Town Hall, the tourist office and the arrival point for the pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago in Tenerife, which links the temples of Santiago del Teide with Los Realejos.
The island’s link with the apostle St. James is very prominent, either because of the promises and devotion of sailors, conquerors or religious figures, or because of events in which the actors saw the miraculous hand of the saint. In fact, the name of this village was originally Valle de Santiago, but it was later renamed Santiago del Teide. The first known mention of the toponym Valle de Santiago for a place on the island of Tenerife is found in a document dated 1508. In this document, the adelantado and governor of the island, Alonso Fernández de Lugo, granted the ownership of certain lands in this place to Juan Cabeza.
The documents state that “due to an extraordinary accident”, in the year 1676, a sailing ship arrived off the coast of this area. The bishop of the Canary Islands, Don Bartolomé García Jiménez, was on board. He was the first bishop to arrive here. The residents of both Isora and Santiago requested the creation of a parish, given the distance from the nearest parish, Buenavista. After various negotiations and the decisive intervention of Don Fernando del Hoyo Solózano y Alzola, holder of the Lordship of Santiago, approval was granted by Royal Decree given in Aranjuez on 10th May 1678, for the creation of the first parish in the southwest of Tenerife, under the patronage of San Fernando Rey. The bishop himself signed the founding document on 9 September 1679. On the 30th of December of that year the first parish mass was celebrated by Don Francisco González, a native of “Puerto de la Cruz”, the first parish priest.
The image of the Santísimo Cristo del Valle is venerated in the central niche of the main altar. In 1909, when the lava from the Chinyero volcano threatened the distribution of this place, this image was taken in rogation to the lava arms, which stopped. In memory of this event, considered miraculous, the route is repeated every year with the Holy Sacrament to the place of Los Baldíos. The image of the patron saint of the parish, San Fernando, and that of the patron saint of the municipality, Santiago, are also venerated on the main altar. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
